Masa Israel Journey Blog

Masa Israel is highlighting the voices of our participants and alumni who are in Israel during Operation Protective Edge to give an authentic look at what it’s like to live and work in the country at this time. This account is from Brian Burchman, a current participant of Israel Way - Tel Aviv Internship Experience.

Since I went on Birthright last summer, I knew I wanted to come back to Israel. Through Masa Israel Journey, I was able to obtain an internship in Tel Aviv. For the first several months of the program, Israel was exactly the same as last year; beautiful, fun and relaxed.

However, today is definitely not the same as several weeks ago. I was not prepared for the current...

Masa Israel is highlighting the voices of our participants and alumni who are in Israel during Operation Protective Edge to give an authentic look at what it’s like to live and work in the country at this time. This account is from Rachel Jetter, a recent alumna of the Yahel Social Change program, through which she volunteered in an Ethiopian-Israeli community for ten months. Rachel made Aliyah after the end of her program and now the Assistant Director at BOMAH in Jerusalem.

I was at a concert outside of the Old City with some friends last week during the first siren. Everyone knew that the country was facing activity that day and while we were all constantly checking the latest updates on our iPhones, we weren’t going to abandon the concert tickets we purchased out of fear of something that might not even disturb...